Coming off the heels of numerous accolades amongst PC critics, Ghost
Recon has spawned an expansion pack not more than six months from its
initial release. Like previous expansion packs for its spiritual
predecessor, Rogue Spear, Desert Siege grafts into Ghost Recon as a
glorified, albeit very professional, mod. As a long time fan of
tactical first person shooters from the early days of EA's Seal Team,
I've been following on the infant but still potent Ghost Recon community,
and one of the largest demands of third party creations are desert maps.
Desert Siege surges to fill that insatiable appetite to conduct warfare
in such a setting.

Insidious critics will probably point out that to create a desert look,
everything green and rocky was turned into a dull beige color while the
trees that dotted Ghost Recon's West Asian/Central Europe landscape have
been removed. Indeed, Desert Siege runs faster than its predecessor,
probably due to the fact that there are far fewer swaying trees to
render than the original. However, not all is bleak and empty in Desert
Siege. One of the earlier levels takes place amidst an oil refinery
that spirals high into the sky; much higher than any of the previous
Ghost Recon buildings. Such architecture, though utilitarian and
aesthetically dry, conveys a sublime feeling of scale. One of the more
interesting motifs from the original Ghost Recon maps, the trickiness
and intensity of combat in urban squalor, however, is non-existent.
Except for a tiny portion of the final map, where you fight in a
shantytown, there isn't much in the way of urban combat, which is quite
a pity considering that facet was one of the most visceral experiences
of the original Ghost Recon.

That isn't to say the new flora and fauna doesn't pose a challenge.
Indeed, the lack of trees and general plantation means you'll have to
choose your positions carefully. The enemy will see you more often but
you will also spot them much easier. The astute platoon commander will
be laying down more cover fire to compensate. Your usual array of
weapons and gadgets are strained somewhat. Because the terrain is less
developed, night missions are particularly challenging because of the
fact that without anything but ambient moonlight, night vision goggles
are pretty dim in and of themselves. One of the chief critics of the
original game was the lack of enemy armor. This time around, the
developers have addressed this in spades as armor is present in half the
maps as well as lighter vehicles like pickup trucks, transports and
regular civilian vehicles.

Like the terrain, these have tactical value to both sides. Often times,
your mission may be explained quite clearly but with added mobility,
enemy forces are able to reinforce with alacrity and even get the jump
on you by appearing from behind. Such things never really happened in
the original Ghost Recon missions. Blow a particular vehicle up and you
can use it as a convenient obstacle to advance. In general, most of the
levels now have two or three objectives for you to achieve besides
reaching the extraction point. Extraction, however, is more often than
not less harrowing an experience than say, Operation Flashpoint. The
way you approach missions now is quite nebulous as Desert Siege forgoes
the gauntlet style type maps and lets you choose what objectives you
wish to tackle first. Maps are designed such that these objectives lie
in isolated quadrants for you to tackle. Obviously, some avenues of
approach will be easier than others but the newfound freedom is a
welcome change. There is a good mix of demolitions missions, hostage
rescue and capture objectives. Unfortunately, less emphasis on the UN
means fewer peacekeepers and allied forces, which is another
disappointment. Without abundant forestry, the levels feel more
spacious although I believe most of the maps are smaller than the ones
posed in Ghost Recon. Some missions will reward careful stealthy
approaches but some of the other ones, like the escort of a convoy
through a mountain pass, are clearly missions where you have to be on
the move all the time.

The command interface for Ghost Recon, lauded by some, shunned by
others, remains unchanged. I was hoping they would allow you to bring
up the command interface with an option to pause, or let the command
interface float on your screen while you move your persona; a good idea
if you're rotating your troops while under fire. Individual soldiers'
firing arcs (a good thing to set for those with machine guns) continue
to be a manual chore so such improvements are not to be found in Desert
Siege. Ghost Recon was supposed to eliminate the micromanagement and
intricate plans of the Rainbow Six franchise. Unfortunately, it also
meant that during single player games, you'll often be reprising the
role of a sniper or specialist while directing your more 'expendable'
troops. Typically, platoon commanders will spend more time on the
command interface than in combat.

Such things can be remedied by the addition of live human players and
Desert Siege offers some additional maps and a few extra team-play
modes. Still, there is no AI substitute to play these attack/defend
type maps but like its predecessor, Desert Siege carries extensive
Firefight and Co-operative modes. One noted addition is the ability to
see the leaderboard while in game. This is a trite improvement in the
eyes of regular first person shooter fans. I think it was available all
the way back in Quake (I) if not before that. But such is the state of
the Ghost Recon multiplayer community. There are those who are
dedicated to the game but unfortunately, the developers appear to be
tapping from the same well of players as their other franchises. Only a
portion of the Rainbow Six players has migrated to Ghost Recon thereby
creating a smaller pool of players for both franchises. Indeed, Ghost
Recon is very much a different game than Rainbow Six but I'm not sure
Desert Siege will spark any rejuvenation in the online community.

Overall, the single player campaign is a great addition. The different
types of terrain really present a new challenge for Ghost Recon fans.
However, the brevity of the whole campaign is rather disconcerting. I
managed to finish the whole single player portion within a long
afternoon's period. The addition of new weapons gives some variety to
the multiplayer campaign though but the single player one is mostly
untouched by the new additions. The M60 is particularly useful but
there are more weapons to cater to the arcade crowd with faster rates of
fire. The difficulty level is not as atrocious as the original game.
The first few missions should be a cakewalk for anyone inundated in
Ghost Recon. The AI exhibited by the game continues to be strong and is
duly strengthened by timely placement of fixed gun emplacements,
trenches, snipers in ideal elevated positions as well as a plethora of
reinforced bunkers. But once you are able to identify these, you can
make short work of it. In Ghost Recon, you're usually under fire from
Russian heavy weaponry faster than you can yell RPG. On the other hand,
in Desert Siege, the armament for the AI entails fewer rockets and more
hand grenades but the AI still makes an effort to use explosives to
flush you out. There is still the odd problem with picking off some
troops. I managed to kill two soldiers before three others milling
around caught notice, but such lapses in realism are rare and few in
between.

Although I've been trying out third party mods for Ghost Recon for
awhile, I haven't been active in the multiplayer community so suffice to
say, I haven't experienced all the new patches yet. Desert Siege will
bring your copy of Ghost Recon up to speed and in addition to the engine
running faster, I noticed the walk/run speeds have been increased
(slightly). Moreover, the rate of fire for rifles like the M16 also
seems improved. But I'm open to criticisms for those who actually dive
into the actual statistics the developers have endowed on the weapons.
The SA80 and M4 still maintain themselves as the best weapons of choice,
while sniper rifles are still too slow to reload. Like Ghost Recon, if
you are stationary, you must wait after each discharge of the gun for
reloading. I've always wondered if leaning while firing a sniper rifle
was a bug. I guess it's not because it hasn't been fixed yet. If you
lean while firing the sniper rifle, it's less accurate under repeated
fire but you're able to get off as many shots as your clip holds without
the incessant reload.

Desert Siege serves to reduce some of the monotony in the original set
of Ghost Recon levels. Why it wasn't attached as a subplot or alternate
campaign to the original is beyond my comprehension. Holistically
speaking, the Ghost Recon+Desert Siege package represents one of the
best forays into the tactical first person shooter genre today. The
developers, coming from Rainbow Six's de facto status as the premier
CQB, have shown themselves to be one of the great practitioners of this
craft, par excellence, even in the face of newcomers like Operation
Flashpoint. For console owners, hopefully the Desert Siege levels will
be grafted on to the Xbox version of Ghost Recon. It will definitely be
poignant to see if this type of game, so revered on the PC, will catch
on with console players as Halo, which in my mind was a PC game at
heart, obviously did. Desert Siege, however, still fails to capitalize
on the gritty side of fighting in urban landscapes. The setting in
Africa though, in opposition against terrorists, is eerily contemporary
in the midst of border disputes and terrorism themes we experience
today. Coming off the heels of the poetically powerful film, Black Hawk
Down, further comparisons will definitely be made. Politics aside,
Desert Siege is a solid, albeit short expansion to what is a great game.
However, it won't serve to attract disillusioned Rainbow Six players.
But it will be interesting to see how the two franchises will play out
in tandem, even if the namesake attached to these games, Tom Clancy,
does not care much for their success.